


Race to the Start

by rainsonata



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28816788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsonata/pseuds/rainsonata
Summary: Elgang race to see who can find the chicken first to get a prize promised by Glave.  Lunar New Year gift to eltag, hue.





	Race to the Start

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

A red haired boy brushed his hand through the tall grass that stood up to his stomach, making it difficult to navigate through the thick woods. The ground had softened from the rainfall days last night, still damp enough that his foot sunk wherever he stepped. Elsword lowered himself to the floor to crawl on his fours and felt the fresh feet marks in the mud. They were about the size of a small bird. 

“You sure it’s out here?” The Rune Slayer scratched his head and wiped his hands on his pants with a sigh. 

He never thought he would make the effort to wake up early for such a petty mission. Once Aisha overheard him talking about it to the owner of the inn they stayed at, the mage was insistent on working together to find it. Two people would speed up the process to find a missing animal, right? What started out as an optimistic day with the two of them working to get information out of the townspeople, ended up on edge of town in a dense forest infested with monsters. He was starting to wonder if the townspeople just wanted to get rid of them despite being the ones that cleared the demon invasion. 

“Well, a chicken with a bell on its neck isn’t common.” Aisha crossed her arms and leaned back to grumble, “We already checked town twice today.”

Elsword sighed. He was wary of accepting Glave’s strange request when the party was approached by the Henir administer earlier that day. The task they were handed sounded more like a chore than the usual requests that often wounded up in scraped knees and bloody knuckles. What was the prize for catching the chicken? 

“Something I’m sure you’ll make use of,” was all Glave replied when asked. 

The Elemental Master walked over to examine a tree when something caught her eye. A lone pink feather with different colors at the tip floated astray on the branches among the leaves. She snuck up behind Elsword and stifled a laugh when she tickled the feather underneath his chin and watched him squirm. 

“Aisha, what are you doing?” He ran away from her and turned around to face the mage. 

“Come on, slowpoke.” She jabbed the feather to his face with a teasing smile. “If we stick around too long, it’s going to get away!” 

“I don’t know, I think I rather eat the chicken than get the prize.” Elsword yelped when his comment was met with the mage’s staff on his head, “Oi! Careful, I’ll lose brain cells!”

“Don’t you want to know what’s the secret prize?” Her eyes shone at the mention of it, “Maybe it’s a secret weapon we can use! Or a book!”

“You already have too many books,” Elsword’s remarks were met with another smack on the head. He rubbed his head and threw a bunch of leaves at her with Aisha pulling down her lower eyelid in retaliation. 

He started to wonder if this was a waste of time. Maybe Glave was screwing with them again and making them do his dirty errands for some person in town. If Glave was missing it, he could always replace it, right? The Henir administer wasn’t specific in promising them a useful prize, so he could be making them walk in circles for his own entertainment for all they knew. 

“Where are you going?” Aisha asked when he saw him walk in the opposite direction of the forest. 

“I think it went this way,” he pointed at the dense shrubs towards the further right side. If they treaded deeper, it would be full of monsters, but that’s where the feet marks were leading…

There were more pink feathers as they proceeded into the dense trees - all of them were as big as his forearm! Elsword had many encounters with birds of that size, but none of them had feathers like those. The big foot marks the creature left were several times larger than the smaller ones left by what he assumed to be the animal they were looking for.

“Wait,” Elsword stopped when Aisha wanted to keep walking. He lowered his head and asked, “Did you hear that?”

She gave him a confused look, “Hear what?”

His head turned and his eyes widened to yell, “AISHA, LOOK OUT!” 

* * *

A young woman brushed her front bangs away to watch the sky turn a darker shade of blue, merged with red and marigold. She scavenged through the woods in search for the source of the strange sound she heard earlier that day. It didn’t sound anything like the demons or animals that ventured into this part of Velder. Her suspicions continued to grow when she almost hit her head while walking into a lower tree branch. When she pulled the leaves out of her hair, she found silver strands of hair. They looked too short to belong to her. A demon, perhaps? 

Ara leaped over a few tree branches to get a better view of the forest below, only to discover that with the sun lowering towards the horizon, it became harder to distinguish the shadows. She lowered herself to sit down on the tree branch when she spotted two shadows charging towards her. 

“Woah!” The Sakra Devanam widened her eyes at the sight and jumped down to where the shadows were. She clashed her spear against the shadow’s sword and used her weight to push it away from herself before swinging it at full force. The orange clad woman screamed when she looked up to see icicles raining down on her, but fell over when she stepped on what must have been one of her opponent’s clothes. 

“Ara?”

She heard her name being called by the other shadowed figure. Ara rolled away on her stomach, but stopped when she heard the voice again. Was that Aisha? She pulled her head up to see the purple haired mage looking down at her with a tired smile. The Elemental Master’s hair was out of her usual pigtails and her clothes looked dusty from a long walk or a dungeon run. Next to Aisha was Elsword, who was in a similar state and gave an apologetic look and waved at her. 

“You almost killed her!” Aisha scolded him. 

“I’m sorry,” Ara stood up and lowered her head in shame. 

“What are you doing here?” Elsword asked. 

Ara brushed the leaves off her clothes and found herself giddy. For the first time, she could finally tell them something they didn’t know! She smiled when she recalled the rest of the group scrambling off when they first heard the news. It was like a scavenger hunt! Of course, there wasn’t a lot of information to go off of where they needed to go, but it was a good way to make the team work together in smaller groups for something fun instead of the usual missions. 

“Didn’t you hear?” Ara was surprised to see the confusion written on their faces, “Someone told me Mr. Glave was giving out a big reward for catching someone’s chicken!” 

Her explanation was met with dead silence. Aisha stopped combing the leaves out of her hair with her hands and Elsword almost lost his balance. Ara examined the two, who were busy exchanging glares at each other. Did she say something to upset them? 

“I thought I told you not to tell anyone,” Elsword said between his teeth.

“I _didn’t_ ,” Aisha snapped back. 

Was that was this was all about? Ara went up to them and pulled their heads together to smack them. Their heads collided and both yelped before backing away and rubbed their foreheads. Was that too much? Oops. 

Ara squeaked, “I’m sorry!” She ran over to check their faces to see there was no blood. “Hey, let’s work together so we can go home!” 

She rubbed her temples at their childish behavior when one of them whined. Just when she thought Aisha was learning to control her temper or that Elsword was becoming more considerate about what he said. Ara shook her head. If those two didn’t get along, they could be stuck here for the rest of the night. 

“Are you here by yourself?” Aisha asked her as she dug into her pockets for an extra hair tie.

“Of course, not!” Ara’s eyes sparkled, “Raven is with me so he can help me fry the chicken!”

“That’s not what my arm is for…”

Aisha spun around and covered her mouth when she saw a dark haired man emerge from the depths of the woods with stray leaves and branches sticking out of his hair. When he appeared under the moonlight (when did the sun set), his nasod arm gleamed orange, outlines glowing in the dark. The Veteran Commander brushed the leaves off his head with annoyance and nodded in acknowledgement of the three. 

“Raven!” Aisha exclaimed. 

“Why did you have to remind me about food?” Elsword complained to Ara. “I want fried chicken…”

“I do too!” Ara giggled, “We should get some when we’re done with this!” Her mouth watered at the thought of trying out the new panko fried chicken they were selling at stalls downtown at the nightmarket. Maybe she could convince a few others to join them. 

“What happened?” Raven saw the scratch marks on the younger members of the group. “Did you run into trouble?”

Oh, right. It was then did Ara remembered the shock those two were when they ran into her. The sloppy bandages wrapped around Elsword’s arm were loose and Aisha was limping when she tried to walk. It was a miracle they found her before their pursuer caught up to them. 

“There’s something out there,” Aisha’s voice quivered. “It’s been chasing us from the edge of town.”

Elsword nodded, “It had sharp claws and it’s stronger than it looks.”

“A demon?” Raven’s eyes narrowed.

Elsword shook his head, “No, something worse. It could take more than two people to pin it down. It’s-”

His sentence was cut off midway through when they heard a loud snap and turned to see the bushes behind rustle. Aisha held up her staff and hugged the book in her arm for comfort. Raven remained calm, but his nasod arm glowed in anticipation as if it sensed something too. Ara clutched her weapon and approached the bush with caution. It was the sound from earlier!

The group screamed when shadow jumped out of the bush to reveal a person in red and black with part of their hair tied into a high ponytail. Held by the back of their collared shirt was an albino man with unnatural eyes that glowed too bright,a scar down one eye. 

“S-sis?” Elsword gawked when he recognized the person. He turned to look at the other, “Add?”

“Hey, guys!” Elesis waved at them, still holding onto the poor man, who looked traumatized from being manhandled by the Blazing Heart. “I found you!”

“Why is he here?” Aisha looked at Add with leery eyes. 

“I found him lying in the bush and thought he needed help!” Elesis beamed. 

“I was following them to find that damn chicken!” Add yelled. His dynamo twitched in response to the Lunatic Psyker’s annoyance of being stuck with her of all people. 

“You said you couldn’t stand up,” she laughed. 

“My legs were paralyzed!”

“So…how many know about the chicken?” Elsword asked. 

“Everyone back at camp,” was Elesis’s answer. 

Add snorted, “Do you even know what it looks like?” 

The brawler nudged himself away from the fire user’s hold and sat down on his dynamo to glare at the rest of the group. He thought they would at the very least have an idea of what they were looking for, but the confusion among them was anything but promising. 

Elesis saw a dark shadow run past them, “I see it!” She ran up ahead and hurled a fireball from her palm to lure it towards the group. “I’ll bring it in!” 

Add yelped when he felt something brush against his leg and scurry on his dynamo. He heard small tweets as the shadow ran around in panic when it saw people and the flames. Feathers flew everywhere when he tried to grab it with his arms and he just barely avoided getting caught by Elsword and Aisha, both of them using magic to move it further inward to the center of the area. 

“Gotcha!” Ara appeared behind him with the creature in her arms. It was a pudgy bird the size of a volleyball with multicolored feathers on its head. It cooed when it was petted by the girl. 

Add looked up and shivered. 

“It’s ok, I found the pet!” Ara laughed at the other’s reaction. 

“That’s not the chicken,” Elsword whispered and pointed over her shoulder. “That’s the chicken.”

Ara looked at where he was pointing at to see a tall bird that several times the size of the one she held in her arms. The bird was taller than her, maybe even Raven! It left giant pink feathers when it approached her to open its sharp beak to reveal rows of sharp teeth. The giant ruchi shrieked at them. 

“Run!” Aisha yelled.

* * *

Being a former member of the Crow Mercenary Knights, Raven had seen many strange things in Velder and in the area. Ruchi were more common in areas like Ruben, but the one chasing after him and the rest of the group had grown to a size he didn’t think was possible. The squacks it made when it chased them was deep and loud, causing the trees and shrubs around them to shake when it ran. It left deep claw marks in the ground and it showed no signs of wearing out when Raven signaled Elsword to pick up the pace and add twists and turns to their run. The bird had poor vision because it kept narrowly avoiding trees, but it was quick to find them when it heard their voices. 

“That thing is our target?” Elesis yelled over the ruchi’s annoying screeches. She must have been as surprised as anyone else by the sheer size of it. The redhead twisted around to see the bird approaching and summoned a burst of flames to push it away. 

“Yeah!” Elsword hollered back, “Fire attacks don’t hurt it much! Ice doesn’t seem to affect it either, but other magic is ok.” 

“So you can’t even cook it if you wanted to?” Elesis huffed when true to her brother’s words, the ruchi shrugged off the flames and kept charging at them. She dodged it when it threw itself in her direction, it’s leg sticking out in an attempt to kick her. “So much for wanting to fry it.”

Raven snorted at the comment. So that meant he couldn’t use his nasod arm against it either, an unfair advantage for it when half of their group were fire users. They were going to lose strength if they kept running, Raven thought. They needed to stun it first or at least slow it down so they wouldn’t waste any more energy. The ruchi created a mini earthquake when it jumped again to catch up to them. If the bird was planning to play that game, then he could too.

“Ground Impact!” He hit the ground with his nasod arm and forced the ruchi to slow down as small waves rolled underneath its feet and caused it to fall over. 

“My turn!” Aisha jumped in front of him. “Lightning Shower!” Heavy clouds formed in the sky as clusters of lightning struck the bird and making it difficult for it to stay mobile as it slowed down. 

“How are we supposed to catch it?” Ara asked. She was still holding onto the little ruchi she found earlier in the woods with her spear in the free arm. The bird squirmed in her hold and squeaked when it saw the giant ruchi on the ground. “It still belongs to someone!”

“Not our fault if it gets hurt because it attacked us,” Add shrugged and set up his dynamo in a neat row with a wild grin. “That asshole didn’t say anything about it having to be alive.”

“No!” Ara smacked him with her spear, “We need to stun it so we can capture it, but not so much that it stops breathing!”

Add groaned and mumbled, “Too much fucking effort.”

He stopped complaining when the ruchi stood up again, awaken by his voice it seemed. It wasn’t ready to give up either and shrieked when it used its feet to kick sand at them. Add gagged at the sand and cursed underneath his breath.

“Stop being a nuisance!” Add threw a burst of electricity at the bird and kicked it in the face with a cackle. “Quake Buster!” 

The kick flipped the bird on its back, unable to roll itself back up. Ara saw the opportunity and tackled it with spear in hand, zigzagging and inflicting attacks on it. She forced it down when it tried to stand up again. 

“What are you stopping for?” Aisha yelled when Elsword appeared hesitant at the injured bird. “You’re going to get hurt if you’re not careful!”

“It’s resistant to fire…” He murmured and approached the ruchi with sparks flying out of his palms, “Enchant Breaker!” 

“Now we’re talking!” Elesis flashed a wide grin and spun around to create fireballs. “Blazing Wing!” 

Elsword held out his sword, “Phoenix Talon!” A burst of fire emerged from the end of his sword to join his sister’s as they struck the bird before it passed out from the intensity. 

“Is it dead?” Ara was worried. 

Elsword shook his head. “Ruchi come up in Ruben all the time. They’re sturdier than they look. They’ll be fine.” 

“We need to bring it back,” Raven looked at the stunned bird. “No one will believe us if we told them we found something like this.”

“But how?” Aisha asked, “None of us thought it would be this big.”

Add was in a daze from the fight when he snapped out of it to see five other people staring at him. The brawler recognized that look - the kind he got when he was expected to do something. He groaned at the realization. They didn’t even have to open their mouths to ask him the favor because he knew what they were thinking. No, absolutely not!

* * *

Add groaned. He couldn’t believe he had to use his dynamo to carry the stupid bird and walk on his own feet like a peasant. It wasn’t like they were within proximity of the nearest town, oh no. They were miles away from it, so it wasn’t a short stroll back to town when they made it back after hours of walking in the dark.

“Aw, it’s not that bad!” Elesis laughed when he complained about it. “Now you know how to walk, you big baby!” 

“Shut up,” he grumbled. Add growled at Elsword, “Oi, kid, don’t tell me we have to walk all the way to Glave for this too!” 

Unlike most of the townspeople, Glave was always on the move, forever changing his location with Helen and the other traveling merchants that seemed to follow them wherever their journey took them. While it was convenient, locating the Henir administer was a pain when said man enjoyed making it a challenge to meet him. Asshole. 

“You won’t have to do that,” a quiet voice replied. 

His skin prickled at the voice that sounded too gentle for a man that held a crude sense of amusement in their struggles. When Add looked around, everyone grew quiet too, some of them holding their breaths, afraid to make a sound at his presence. 

Glave chuckled when he saw the giant ruchi resting on his now unbalanced dynamo in reaction to the brawler’s shock. “A little worn down, but alas, you have done a well job catching it for me.”

“What about the prize?” Elsword asked.

“Ah, yes.” Glave pressed his hands together, “For the great effort you put into this, as promised. This is for you and the rest of your little group.” He handed the swordsman a big cardboard box sealed with tape and a small pocket sized book. 

Add rolled his eyes when Elsword wasn’t one for manners and was quick to open the box in front of Glave. Although from the suspicious looks he was exchanging between the cardboard box and glave, Add could see that despite the go-lucky attitude Elsword sometimes had, he wasn’t stupid. It wouldn’t hurt to check just in case Glave was messing with them again, right?

Curious himself, Add leaned to peek over Elsword’s shoulder. After wrestling with the tape for a few seconds, the brawler grew impatient and ordered his dynamo that was now free of bird, but it smelled like one, to tear it open. The group gasped when they saw what it was. 

“What is this?” Aisha fumed when she saw it.

“Wow,” was all Elesis could comment. 

“This is…something,” Ara gave a nervous laugh.

Raven stretched his nasod arm out and looked at the box’s content before turning his attention to his arm again. “Will this fit?” He didn’t say more beyond that, but it was clear that he found the situation concerning and frowned in deep thought. 

“This is stupid!” Add shook the pink fabric in the air. “You can’t believe we would wear this!”

“And this is…?” Elsword opened the little book. 

“Tickets for free panko chicken for a month!” Ara cried with drool. 

“I suppose some of us are happy,” Elesis sighed as Ara ran around and waved the book in the air like she won the lottery. 

Elsword counted the items in the box to discover that there were twelve sets of the same outfit. He looked up to yell, “Glave, you promised!” Only to see that the man was out of sight, long gone while they were distracted with their “gifts”. 

“I’m surrounded by stupid,” Add grumbled. 

* * *

_Extra:_

“Add, come out! You’ve been in there for an hour!” Aisha knocked at the dressing room of the strange restaurant. 

“Go away!” Add growled. 

“Come on, we have to do this at least once so they let us in for free!” She yelled through the door, “Don’t make me force Raven to make you come out!”

“All right, all right!” He barged out of door with his face all red, wearing the embarrassing ruchi outfit. _Free chicken, my ass,_ Add cursed. He stood outside the restaurant holding a sign that said, ‘Free samples inside and a coupon for the first month!’

Elsword and Ara sat outside with their order of yet another plate of fried chicken to add with the fries, popcorn chicken, teriyaki meatballs, and the untouched salad. Their table was set under an outdoor umbrella, not too far from the entrance where they could see people walking in to check out the new restaurant in town. 

“You think Add is ok standing out there in that?” Ara pondered in between bites. 

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Elsword shrugged. 

“I AM NOT FINE,” Add hollered from the side. 

“…I think he’s fine.” 


End file.
